Christmas Part 1

I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the amount of times we celebrated Christmas in a span of 3 days last year so we decided to break it up a little bit this year.  The Sunday before Christmas, we got together with my family to celebrate.  It was so much fun to have a day to spend time together without rushing to get somewhere else. 

 

We opened presents pretty quickly after we got there.  Avery and Sophia were more than happy to get the party started!

 



I love the look of absolute shock and excitement.  I can hear her gasping for joy as I look at this picture!

Grandpa and Chloe

Chlo girl was showing her sass!

Sweet cousins

After presents and dinner, we celebrated Bill's birthday a bit and then broke out my gift to Andrew- A Big Bang Theory Trivia Game.  My family is really into Big Bang Theory especially Andrew.  It is actually frightening how much he knows.  I have watched pretty much every episode but he knows tiny little details about them all!

 



 

By the end of the night, Avery's nose had started to run and she had developed a little cough.  Little did we know that she was going to be taken down for the remainder of the holidays.  It's a good thing that we celebrated early so that we could all enjoy this time together!

Bill's Big 3-0

Bill's 30th birthday was the Friday before Christmas.  We don't usually do anything too exciting since it is such a hectic time of year but I wanted to make sure that it was special this year.

We started the day off by getting Bill some breakfast while he slept in.  Then Bill and Ave did some work outside.

 

Avery LOVES to ride on daddy's "mower mower"

 Bill wanted to have some friends over for dinner and then some 42 for the guys.  I got Ricos takeout which ended up being a fiasco requiring not one but two extra trips to get the order right.  It was really tasty though!

 

When I think about that night, I think about the sheer craziness of the kids.  Avery had an absolute blast.  There was lots of playing, running, and shrieking!

 



 

On Saturday, we continued the celebration by going on a date to Grimaldi's and then going to see Anchorman.  It was so nice to get some one on one time with Bill.  That doesn't happen too often these days!

 

I can't believe that Bill is officially an old man.  He does so much for our family and is such an amazing daddy to our two girls.  I could go on and on about how many great ways he enriches our family.  This was my 15th birthday spent with him, and I look forward to many, many more!

Ave's School Christmas Party

Avery's school Christmas party was the last day of school before Christmas break.  They made the most precious reindeer shirts that I will cherish my whole life.  Not sure where I will store all of these homemade things but I do know that I will weep over how sweet and precious they all are one day when all of the kids have moved out of the house!

 

Christmas Bingo!

Playing outside after the party

Mom fail moment- I was in charge of making sandwiches for the party.  I found some cute reindeer sandwiches on Pinterest and made them for the class (or turns out most of the class).  I thought that there were ten kids so I made ten sandwiches.  There are actually 12 kids in the class.  I felt HORRIBLE!  Why didn't I make extras?!?  Avery and another little boy that doesn't like PB&J missed out.  Check out Avery's plate above- cheetos, carrots, and fruit.  Lunch of champions.  I made her a reindeer sandwich when we got home and this is what was left-

 

 

I felt a little less bad when I saw that she only ate the m&ms off the top!  Note to self- always make extras!

Daddy's Work Building Party

Anadarko always puts on an amazing Christmas party for kids a couple weeks before Christmas.  Avery thought it was just about the best thing she'd ever been to last year.  She talked about Daddy's work building party constantly throughout the year so I'm pretty sure that's what I will always call it.  She was thrilled to go again this year to say the least.

 

Picture with Bill's group's children

She requested a pink kitty for her balloon animal this year.

Chlo girl slept for the majority of the party

We got some tasty treats and then went to do some crafts.

 



Displaying her bell bracelet proudly

I think this was Ave's favorite part- decorating cookies!

We met up with Luke and Lily for some more cookie decorating and pictures.

 

Ave adores Lily.  She loved showing off her girly balloon.

The little ones- they will be able to participate a lot more next year!

This was the best we could do with all the kids.  I love that Chloe and Lily are looking in completely different directions!

Sis Pic!

 

After the party, we went to Berryhill for some lunch. 

 







It turned out being a tad colder than I thought it was going to be so the playing in the field at Market Street was a little short lived but a little Starbucks on the way out was a great way to end our fun morning!

Christmas time is here!

Christmas time is absolutely my favorite part of the year.  I just love all the decorating, baking, wrapping, watching of Christmas movies, and the list could go on and on.  I get giddy the day after Thanksgiving. 

 

We always wait to put decorations up on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Well, we did our 3rd Thanksgiving meal that day in College Station and none of us were feeling up to it when we got home.  We decided to do it Saturday morning but it ended up feeling more like whipping it out rather than soaking up the moment.  I actually felt really sad about how uneventful it was but I guess that's how it goes with a little baby.  Maybe we can soak up the moment next year. 

 

 

Though the decorating didn't go according to plan, I quickly got out of my momentary funk and got back in the spirit once I found these beauties at the store...

For as long as I can remember, we have started buying and baking these starting with Halloween.  They have different pictures on the cookies with each holiday but I couldn't seem to find them anywhere.  One day I found them at another Kroger, and I couldn't have been more excited.  I sent Bill this pic in a text immediately upon finding them!  They were then at every store I looked after that day which made me all the more excited!

 

Another favorite of the season is watching Christmas movies and tv shows.  I love that there are usually several on each night in December.  We would all snuggle up and watch them together.

 



I showed Avery a picture that I took of her when she was 6 months old next to her stocking.  She insisted that we recreate it.

 

 



 



She looks just a tad different now.

Chloe girl next to her new stocking (her 2nd one- I took a reindeer one to a woman to monogram it and it looked horrible!  I think she'll end up happier with the girly ballerina one though!)

Someone is a little happy Christmas is here!

 

We've been making gingerbread houses since Avery was 1 1/2 so we had to keep the tradition going.  She loves decorating it and pretty much did it all with the exception of the icing and a little fondant action.

 

Avery ended up getting sick right before Christmas.  It was a little devastating to me but we made the best of it.  We baked some cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.  They were definitely not edible since she coughed all over them but she had a great time making them.

 



Love my sweet, sick girl

While they were cooking, we introduced Chloe to one of the all time best Christmas movies- Elf. 

 



I think she like it :)

 

 Decorating time!!!

 

 

I really think some of the best Christmas memories are made before Christmas Eve is even here!